The Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, however, may offer one remedy. Over the past two years, the Carr Center, together with the U.S. Army Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute, has prepared the Mass Atrocity Response Operations Project, a step-by-step guide for a military response to genocide.

Take a landlocked state in sub-Saharan Africa – Country X – that is run by one ethnic group, Clan A. Clan A is distributing weapons and broadcasting propaganda for a campaign of ethnic cleansing against another group, Clan B. The international community has limited time to act – weeks, perhaps days – before the mass killings begin. It's not a far-fetched scenario, but military planners don't necessarily have a ready template for intervening in Country X to halt the atrocities. They need to weigh the implications of sending in a rapid intervention force; understand the main operational tasks; and identify the desired end-state.

The Mass Atrocity Reponse Operations Project, then, is not an academic exercise: it is led by Sarah Sewall, the Harvard professor who played a key role in the drafting of the U.S. Army/U.S. Marine Corps counterinsurgency manual. And it draws on the expertise of retired and active duty U.S. military planners. The MARO framework has already been presented to the military and U.S. government; this week, the project will be briefed in New York to members of non-governmental organizations and international organizations.

While the scenarios produced by the MARO Project are hypothetical, it's not too hard to think of some real-world applications – particularly when you make a quick scan of the recent headlines from Sudan. The idea is to create a broader menu of options – including, but not limited to armed force – for policymakers who face an unfolding genocide.